The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

A compilation of the 10 most interesting photo essays published online in June, as curated by Mikko Takkunen

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including Tomas Munita’s powerful work on Burma’s persecuted Rohingya minority. The photographs, made on assignment for The New York Times, capture a camp in Sittwe, Burma, where some 140,000 Rohingya live in bamboo huts without electricity, in conditions that partly explain why thousands of the Muslim ethnic group have tried to migrate across Asia these past few months.

The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

A compilation of the 10 most interesting photo essays published online in May, as curated by Mikko Takkunen

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including Stephanie Sinclair’s compelling National Geographic photo essay on young Newari girls in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley who are worshipped as living goddesses.

The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

A compilation of the 10 most interesting photo essays published online in April, as curated by Mikko Takkunen

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including The New York Times staff photographer Damon Winter’s stunning aerial pictures documenting the ongoing drought in California.

The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

A compilation of the 10 most interesting photo essays published online in March, as curated by Mikko Takkunen

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including Matt Black‘s work from Guerrero state in Mexico. Black has documented impoverished indigenous communities in southern Mexico for years. This latest work captures communities affected by rampant crime and poverty, including the disappearance of the 43 students from a school in Iguala. The black-and-white photographs are extraordinary and the accompanying short-film, which includes a moving letter from a mother to his lost son, is definitely worth watching. The reporting was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center.

The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

A compilation of the 10 most interesting photo essays published online in February, as curated by Mikko Takkunen

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including Stephanie Sinclair‘s work on child and underage brides in Guatemala in the latest installment of her decade-long project spanning 10 countries to document the issue of child marriage around the world. In Guatemala, over half of all girls are married before 18, and over 10% under 15. Many girls marry men far older than themselves, end up withdrawing from school and become mothers long before they are physically and emotionally ready. Sinclair’s powerful pictures and accompanying video capture Guatemalan girls trying to come to terms with the harsh realities of early motherhood, especially for those who have been abandoned by their husbands.

The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

A compilation of the 10 most interesting photo essays published online in January, as curated by Mikko Takkunen

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world spanning five continents, including Pete Muller‘s powerful work shot in the Ebola-ridden Sierra Leone. His two sets of photographs, featured below, were made on assignment for National Geographic, and are the first two in a four-part series examining the epidemic in West Africa. Muller’s pictures document the battle fought by medical workers, body collectors, and burial teams to bring the crisis ravaging Freetown and the country, under control. The story and images from the city’s King Tom cemetery are particularly harrowing; in just a few months, it has been expanded to three times its former size and the large number of fresh burial mounds make it look more like a construction site than a typical graveyard.

Lynn Johnson: Healing Soldiers (The National Geographic) Compelling portraits of U.S. soldiers treating their war traumas by participating in art therapy, where they create painted masks to express how they feel. The images painted on them symbolize themes such as death, physical pain, and patriotism.

Photojournalism Daily: Jan. 14, 2015

A compilation of the most interesting photojournalism found on the web, curated by Mikko Takkunen

Today’s daily Photojournalism Links collection highlights Robin Hammond‘s work on sandmining in Lagos, Nigeria, an urban hub that is Africa’s most populous metropolitan area. Most of the sand for the concrete used in construction comes from the bottom of the Lagos Lagoon. The photographs follow a group of sand diggers, who work like miners, except underwater. They navigate the lagoon on small boats, their sails constructed of rice sacks, and dig by hand before bringing their haul back ashore. Hammond’s striking pictures offer us a glimpse into the lives of those who play a crucial role in Lagos’ booming growth.

Photojournalism Daily: Jan. 13, 2015

A compilation of the most interesting photojournalism found on the web, curated by Mikko Takkunen

Today’s daily Photojournalism Links collection highlights Marco Gualazzini‘s work from Haiti. Published by CNN, they document the country’s state five years after it was hit by devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 160,000 people, and left 1.5 million homeless. The excellent photographs capture Haiti’s enduring scars and hopes, but also signs of recovery.

Photojournalism Daily: Jan. 12, 2015

A compilation of the most interesting photojournalism found on the web, curated by Mikko Takkunen

Today’s daily Photojournalism Links collection highlights Andrea Bruce‘s work from Cuba, made on assignment for the New York Times. They accompany a text by a correspondent who made a 17-hour, nearly 600-mile road trip across the island in a battered 1956 Ford. The photographs, shot in the south of the country, capture a struggling country, where many continue to rely on money sent by relatives abroad, horses are used for transportation and billboards still trumpet revolutionary slogans. But, there are also hints of change to the political system, with budding entrepreneurship. The words and pictures are a fascinating sliver into contemporary, slowly changing Cuba.

Photojournalism Daily: Jan. 9, 2015

A compilation of the most interesting photojournalism found on the web, curated by Mikko Takkunen

Today’s daily Photojournalism Links collection highlights Alex Maclean‘s aerial photographs of Detroit. The work captures the contrasting fortunes and economic inequality between the depopulated areas (defined by vacant lots and boarded-up homes) and the wealth of some surrounding areas (mansions and manicured lawns). It can appear bleak, but there’s cause for optimism as Detroit’s worst decline appears to be slowing, evident by new green spaces and corporate investment. Maclean’s pictures offer an excellent and insightful bird’s-eye view on the struggles of Motor City and its fight to survive.